- Russia: Pro-Kremlin blogger “admitted to psychiatric unit” after turning on Putin
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“A pro-Kremlin figure who unexpectedly denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine in a social media post this week that went viral has been placed in a psychiatric facility, Russian media reported on Thursday. Ilya Remeslo made a career denouncing Putin’s critics until he became one himself, posting a manifesto late on Tuesday to his 90,000 followers on Telegram entitled: ‘Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.’ He said Putin had prosecuted a ‘failing war’ in Ukraine that had killed millions and torpedoed Russia’s economy to the detriment of its citizens’ well-being. ‘Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate president. Vladimir Putin must resign and be brought to trial as a war criminal and a thief,’ Remeslo wrote in his post. … On Thursday, St Petersburg’s Fontanka newspaper reported Remeslo had been hospitalised in the city’s Psychiatric Hospital No 3.” (03/19/26)
- Norway: Rape trial of crown princess’s son closes with prosecutors seeking 7+ years in prison
Source: ABC News
“Lawyers for the eldest son of Norway’s crown princess called on Thursday for his acquittal on charges of rape, as six weeks of high-profile court proceedings that have cast a shadow over the royal family drew to a close. Prosecutors this week sought a prison sentence of seven years and seven months for Marius Borg Høiby, who denies the rape allegations. A verdict is expected at a later date. … He is charged with 40 offenses in total, including four counts of rape between 2018 and 2024 involving women who prosecutors say were unable to give consent because they were asleep or otherwise incapacitated. Defense lawyers for Høiby, who has no royal titles or official duties, said that there was no evidence of rape in any of the cases.” (03/19/26)
- UK: Spacey settles sex assault claims out of court ahead of civil trial
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“Three men who alleged that actor Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted them have settled their civil claims before going to trial at the High Court in London, court documents show. The three men alleged that the Academy Award-winning star abused them at times between 2000 and 2013. Spacey has denied the allegations. Civil trials were due to start later this year, but case judge Christina Lambert last week ordered the proceedings paused, saying the parties had ‘agreed to the terms of the settlement.’ … Spacey, now 66, was tried in London in 2023 on nine alleged sex offenses against four men, and acquitted on all counts. … Spacey also successfully defended himself against a $40 million US civil lawsuit in New York in 2022 brought by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp.” (03/19/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/kevin-spacey-settles-assault-claims-9.7134457
- Eli Lilly’s next-generation obesity drug retatrutide clears first late-stage diabetes trial
Source: CNBC
“Eli Lilly on Thursday said its next-generation obesity drug retatrutide cleared its first late-stage trial on Type 2 diabetes patients, helping them manage their blood sugar levels and lose weight. The drug lowered hemoglobin A1c — a key measure of blood sugar levels — by an average of 1.7% to 2% across different doses at 40 weeks compared with placebo, meeting the study’s main goal. Patients started the trial with an A1c in the range of 7% to 9.5%, and were not taking other diabetes medications.” (03/19/26)
- Congolese, Rwandan regimes agree on steps to de-escalate tensions in eastern Congo
Source: ABC News
“Congolese and Rwandan officials met in the United States and agreed on coordinated steps to de-escalate tensions in eastern Congo, where government troops are fighting rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda, according to a joint statement. The statement issued by the Congolese, Rwandan and U.S. governments said that Congolese and Rwandan officials met on Tuesday and Wednesday to advance progress in eastern Congo as peace efforts led by the U.S. and partners including Qatar have stalled and violence continued. The mineral-rich eastern Congo has been battered by decades of unrest as government forces fight more than 100 armed groups, the most potent the M23 rebel group backed by Rwanda.” (03/19/26)
- OH: Afroman beats cops’ frivolous lawsuit
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“The Grammy-nominated rapper Afroman won a defamation lawsuit filed by seven Ohio sheriff’s deputies who sued him over music videos in which he used home security footage to mock their raid of his home. ‘We did it, America! Yeah, we did it! Freedom of speech! Right on! Right on!’ the 51-year-old rapper, born Joseph Foreman, shouted outside the courthouse after the Wednesday evening verdict. … The Adams County deputies [whined that] they were publicly harassed over the viral videos, which were viewed more than three million times on YouTube. The videos show rifle-wielding deputies busting down Afroman’s door, searching his shoes and suit pockets, and hungrily eyeing a cake on the kitchen table, inspiring one song’s title, Lemon Pound Cake. In other music videos, Afroman took aim at the deputies’ personal lives and called them ‘crooked cops’ because of $400 that went missing in the raid.” (03/19/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/afroman-wins-defamation-lawsuit-9.7134433
- France: Appeals court rejects regime’s bid to suspend Shein
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France’s attempt to suspend Chinese online platform Shein’s marketplace was rejected by a Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday, after a Paris court had already ruled against the government’s request in December. Shein has been embroiled in a scandal since France’s consumer watchdog found sex dolls resembling children and banned weapons for sale on its marketplace in November, prompting the government to attempt to suspend the platform.” (03/19/26)
- Dog bites man: Senate Republicans vote against being US Senators again
Source: United Press International
“Senate Republicans have blocked a Democrat-led effort to curb President Donald Trump’s powers to wage war against Iran, as the nearly three-week-old conflict escalates and rattles global energy markets. The Senate voted 53-47 mostly along party lines Wednesday night to reject a resolution that would withdraw U.S. armed forces from conflict with Iran absent congressional approval. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to join his Democratic colleagues and vote in favor of the motion, while Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only member of his caucus to vote against it.” [editor’s note: They continue to pretend it’s the opposite of what it is. Without congressional APPROVAL in the form of a declaration of war, the war is illegal; failing to vote AGAINST it doesn’t magically make it legal – TLK] (03/19/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/03/19/Senate-vote-war-powers/6951773909421/
- Orbán’s last stand: EU braces for showdown over €90 billion Ukraine loan
Source: Politico
“For much of the past decade, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has succeeded in bending the EU’s agenda to his will by forcing leaders to overcome his vetoes in one high-level gathering after another. On Thursday he’s ready to do it again — possibly for the last time as he faces a tough battle for reelection against rival Péter Magyar next month. By threatening to block, at a gathering of EU leaders in Brussels, a €90 billion loan for Ukraine that he’d approved in December, Orbán has crossed a red line when it comes to opposing Brussels. In doing so he is setting himself up for a reckoning with the bloc that could come soon after the Hungarian election, five EU diplomats and one national European government cabinet minister said.” (03/19/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-last-stand-eu-braces-showdown-over-e90b-ukraine-loan
- Dolores Huerta accuses César Chávez of sexual abuse amid wider claims
Source: Axios
“Labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta said Wednesday that she was sexually abused by farmworker leader César Chávez decades ago, becoming the most high-profile figure to accuse him of misconduct. The allegation comes as the United Farm Workers union grapples with reports that their former leader abused girls and young women, prompting the cancellation of tributes and celebrations in his honor. Huerta worked alongside Chávez for decades, helping found the UFW with him and fellow activist Gilbert Padilla.” (03/18/26)
- Malaysia’s Resurgence
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott“In the last month, the small nation of Malaysia has risen in the views of global investors. Drawn by the country’s political stability and economic growth, investors increasingly consider Malaysia a safe method for diversification in the Pacific region amid a softening US dollar and a tumultuous global economy. In 2025 alone, investors poured over $5 billion into local currency debt—the highest in the region — leading to the Malaysian currency, the Ringgit, reaching its highest point since 2018. … This resurgence from the 1MDB scandal of 2020, that saw billions of government money disappear, should not be read as accidental or a mere coincidence of location, though that’s part of it: Malaysia sits in a ‘sweet spot between low-yielders, such as Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea, and high-yielders such as Indonesia and India, which come with their own set of risks,’ according to portfolio manager at Eastspring Investments, Rong Ren Goh.” (03/19/26)
- Remembering Paul Ehrlich (Even If We Would Rather Not)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson“More than 30 years ago, I was listening to an NPR interview with Paul Ehrlich, the late Stanford University biologist who became the nation’s top environmental guru. His comments were opposite of the truth but well-received by his interviewer. Despite the fact that he often made unwise and outrageous claims that governing elites turned into brutal, coercive policies that made life worse for some of the poorest people on the globe, elites treated Ehrlich as a hero. Knowledgeable people knew better.” (03/17/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/remembering-paul-ehrlich-even-if-we-would-rather-not
- Modern Interface, Same Old Problem?
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Christopher Dreisbach“Since the nationwide rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines, federal health officials have repeatedly downplayed concerns about severe adverse events as ‘one in a million.’ Time and again, they reassured the public that if any true safety signals existed, their own monitoring systems, chiefly VAERS, would detect them. Yet when the vaccine-injured pointed to those very same VAERS statistics, often far above established signal thresholds, their concerns were abruptly dismissed because VAERS was deemed ‘unreliable.’ … the FDA now touts AEMS as a unified, intuitive platform that will draw vaccine, drug, and device reports into one place. Superficially, this represents a stark departure from the current Kafkaesque status quo of scattered databases and fragmented reporting pathways. But the fundamental problem has never been just fragmentation on the front end. It has been silence on the back end.” (03/19/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/modern-interface-same-old-problem/
- Being John Rawls
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander“John Rawls was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 21, 1921. Not John Rawls the famous liberal philosopher (or, rather, John Rawls the famous liberal philosopher was also born in Baltimore, Maryland on February 21, 1921, but he is not the subject of our story). This is John Rawls the alcoholic. John Rawls the alcoholic was twelve when they lifted Prohibition. He partook immediately, and dropped out of school the following year, supporting himself through a combination of odd jobs, petty crime, and handouts. … as he entered his early fifties, the handouts started to dry up. … he ran into a man he’d once seen volunteering at Salvation Army, and asked him what had happened. ‘You haven’t heard?’ asked the volunteer. ‘None of the rich people donate to us anymore. They’re all giving to this group called the John Rawls Foundation.'” (03/19/26)
- Seizing Iran’s “crown jewel” would be a suicide mission
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Harrison Mann“President Donald Trump is reportedly considering seizing Iran’s Kharg Island, which he calls Iran’s ‘crown jewel’ because it houses a terminal that processes about 90% of Iran’s oil exports. After the U.S. bombed Kharg last week but spared its oil facilities, leading Iran hawks urged Trump to finish the job. ‘Mr. President: Take Kharg Island [and] this war is over!’ exhorted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), for his part, floated the idea that seizing the island is the perfect mission for the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) now sailing toward the region. So why is capturing this once-obscure island suddenly on the tip of every Iran hawk’s tongue? And what happens if they get their way?” (03/19/26)
- Can the market economy be trusted?
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak“Some commentators are of the view that one cannot trust the market economy, which is seen as inherently unstable. If left free, the market economy could lead to self-destruction. Hence there is the need for the government and the central bank to manage the economy. It is held in this framework of thinking, that successful management could be achieved by influencing overall expenditure. In this way of thinking it is expenditure that generates income. An expenditure by one individual becomes the income of another individual. … Contrary to popular thinking, the key for economic growth is not an increase in demand but an increase in savings.” (03/19/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/03/can-the-market-economy-be-trusted/
- A Looming Entitlement Crisis
Source: Law & Liberty
by Leonidas Zelmanovitz“Working taxpayers are encouraged to think of themselves as ‘lending’ money to the government to finance future benefits, but instead of the government investing those payments to generate the needed resources, those ‘loans’ are simply consumed by today’s retirees. This creates the monetary disequilibrium we experience today. Think now about bondholders. Savers believe that the instruments of public debt they own constitute wealth, even though that wealth has already been consumed and not invested. Distortions in interest and exchange rates follow from this disjunction. Either the wealth exists, or it does not, and at some point in the future, every society that creates false rights will have its day of reckoning. Unless something is done, it will be no different for the United States.” (03/19/26)
- The Feds Are Investing in Wearable Health Trackers. That Could Put Your Private Data at Risk.
Source: Reason
by Jeffrey A Singer & Patrick Eddington“Consider this scenario. You’ve recently received a government-subsidized biowearable. Accordingly, the authorities now know when you’re sleeping, because the device reports your sleep cycle, location, and daily movements in real time to a cloud server accessible through a legal process. It knows when you’re home. It knows when you leave. Those data are then obtained by an FBI field office (either through direct purchase or, if necessary, a legal process), because a federal prosecutor has decided that your criticism of immigration enforcement operations and your social media posts supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters constitute ‘incitement to violence’ against federal agents. Under the Trump administration’s elastic (and legally dubious) domestic terrorism definitions and designations, that is enough to open a criminal investigation. And because the government has known for weeks when you’re at home sleeping, it knows exactly when to break down your door.” (03/19/26)
- Congress Knows It Has a Spending Problem, But Won’t Fix It
Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia“At a recent Senate hearing on the fiscal outlook, legislators and budget experts said the quiet part out loud: the United States is running historically large deficits in non-crisis times, and we need to stop pretending that we can grow our way out of it. Washington’s problem isn’t ignorance. It’s that the only politically safe position is to acknowledge the debt crisis — and then do nothing to fix it.” (03/19/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/congress-knows-it-has-a-spending-problem-but-wont-fix-it/
- Arguing Against the State Without Hesitation
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“In 2008, a book appeared called Deleting the State: An Argument About Government. It was a trim volume, barely a hundred pages of actual text, but it hit me with the force of a hundred pounds from the very first page. As an undergraduate political science student, I had by that point read Robert Nozick, but I had yet to encounter Murray Rothbard or the broader Austrian and anarcho-capitalist tradition. Aeon Skoble’s book was therefore the first work I encountered that seriously challenged the legitimacy of the state itself. Now the Independent Institute has done a new generation of readers a service by issuing a second edition of this compact but provocative anarcho-capitalist work.” (03/19/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/arguing-against-the-state-without-hesitation
- It’s Official: Trump’s Tariffs Have Failed
Source: Foreign Policy
by Agathe Demarais“All eyes are set on U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating war against Iran, but on the home front, things are not going well. Nearly one year after he launched a barrage of steep tariffs on what he called ‘Liberation Day,’ economists have crunched the numbers for 2025 — and they are not looking good for the White House. By Trump’s own yardstick — his three goals of making foreigners pay for doing business with the United States, narrowing the U.S. trade deficit, and punishing China — tariffs have clearly failed.” (03/19/26)
- Ted Cruz Is the Republican Kamala Harris
Source: The American Conservative
by Jack Hunter“Many consider J.D. Vance the heir apparent to Donald Trump’s MAGA legacy and the man to beat in the 2028 Republican presidential primaries — a state of affairs the Republican foreign policy establishment has never liked. Hawks have long worried that the vice president is too much of a foreign policy restrainer for their tastes (though Vance has often sounded more like neoconservatives in Trump’s second term). Still, neocons were giddy last week when polling showed that Marco Rubio’s numbers had improved against Vance, with the secretary of state being hawks’ main man in the 2016 GOP primaries and a figure who could repurpose ‘MAGA’ as the neoconservatism of old (though Trump seems to be doing this already, making Vance’s supposed 2028 inevitability less clear). But there could be more than one neocon champion in 2028.” (03/19/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/ted-cruz-is-the-republican-kamala-harris/
- Trading Green
Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by Annalise Helm, Dominic Parker, & Garrett Shost“How transferable tax credits supercharge conservation easements.” (03/18/26)
- Are Spontaneous Order and neo-Aristotelian Arguments for a Free Society Compatible?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Dr. Edward W Younkins“The defense of a free society has emerged from diverse intellectual traditions. One line of argument, associated with thinkers such as Friedrich A. Hayek, Gerald A. Gaus, Jonathan Haidt, and John Hasnas grounds liberty in cultural evolution, spontaneous order, epistemic limits, and moral psychology. From another direction, Douglas B. Rasmussen and Douglas J. Den Uyl have developed a neo-Aristotelian justification of natural rights rooted in individualistic perfectionism, virtue ethics, and the metanormative structure of political morality. These two traditions have often been viewed as distinct and divergent: the former emphasizing emergent social complexity, evolved rules, the limits of reason, and epistemological humility; the latter emphasizing teleological ethics, virtue, and the normative structure of human flourishing.” (03/18/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/03/are-spontaneous-order-and-neo.html
- The Iran War Could Hit a Lot More Than Oil
Source: Cato Institute
by Scott Lincicome“Discussions of the Iran War’s economic effects understandably fixate on crude oil. The Strait of Hormuz, through which about 27 percent of the world’s seaborne petroleum supplies usually transits, has been effectively closed since the war started in late February, causing global oil and gasoline prices to spike — something both American drivers and politicians have surely noticed. … Yet the strait is a lot more than an oil pipeline, and the Iran War’s economic effects are about a lot more than just oil. Roughly 11 percent of global maritime trade transits the strait each year—a lot of it crude oil and liquid natural gas, yes, but also loads of minerals and energy-intensive commodities …. The Iran conflict has also spread beyond Iran and the strait itself, in the process threatening major Middle Eastern production and shipping hubs for other important goods.” (03/18/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/iran-war-could-hit-lot-more-oil
- Looking back: Alarmism and fearmongering in 1968
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“1968 was an interesting year. Several of us here at The Price of Liberty recall that rather fateful year. For us, the impact of events of 1968 still is resonating around the world, and especially the States, in 2026.” (03/18/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/03/18/lookiing-back-alarmism-and-fearmongering-in-1968/
- The Fifth Column, episode 549
Source: The Fifth Column
“There’s Always a New Monster to Destroy (w/ Noam Dworman).” (03/19/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/theres-always-a-new-monster-to-destroy
- The Liberty Exchange, episode 25
Source: The Liberty Exchange
“Free Speech is for Losers: A Conversation with Bruce Pardy.” (03/19/26)
- Capital Record, episode 289
Source: National Review
“Industrial Policy for Me but Not for Thee.” (03/19/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/industrial-policy-for-me-but-not-for-thee/
- This Day In Liberty History: Kronstadt
Source: LP Alliance
“Join Amanda and Kyle for a discussion on the Kronstadt Rebellion!” (03/19/26)
- Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 156
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“The Latest Attack on Tom Massie, Reading Between the Lines.” (03/19/26)
- The Science of Politics, 03/18/26
Source: Niskanen Center
“The intellectual support for Trumpism.” (03/18/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-intellectual-support-for-trumpism/
- Kibbe on Liberty, episode 377
Source: Free the People
“There’s No Easy Way Out of This War | Guest: Scott Horton.” (03/18/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 03/18/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Darryl Cooper: Khamenei Martyred, Iran in Chaos — What the West Isn’t Telling You.” (03/18/26)
- ReImagining Liberty, episode 98
Source: ReImagining Liberty
“The Practice and Inner Life of Liberalism (w/ Jason Canon).” (03/18/26)